1. Field
This invention relates generally to a system and method for efficiently turning a large volume of data into actionable information and, more particularly, to a custom computational tool that combines procurement information from multiple databases into a single user friendly interface that provides automated status emails, material from estimate-to-complete information, and metrics data.
2. Discussion
Material requirements planning (MRP) is a production planning, scheduling and inventory control system used to manage manufacturing processes, projects and similar activities. The typical objectives of an MRP system is to: (1) ensure materials are available for production and products are available for delivery to customers; (2) maintain the lowest possible material and product levels on site and/or in storage; and (3) plan manufacturing activities, delivery schedules, and purchasing activities. A commonly used resource is a sourcing and procurement system (SAP) for at least some of the MRP system. For a large MRP system, it is typical that several reports are required to put together the big picture of a company's MRP system. For example, an SAP may have three or more reports, where each report contributes different information, where all of the information is necessary for the MRP.
Typically, a system user must download each report that is necessary for the MRP, and then the user must combine the pertinent information from each report manually to provide the MRP with a complete picture of all of the useful data. Each report may take 30 minutes to download, and to combine and correlate the downloaded data may take approximately 15-40 hours. Thus, by the time the data has all been processed, at least some of the information contained therein may be outdated. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a way to quickly turn a large volume of data from multiple sources into cohesive, actionable information.